05/06/2001
FEATURE BY CHRIS BALFE
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A few years back, while working for Atlas F1, I wrote an article entitled 'Guess who's coming to dinner'. Essentially the piece was about a fictitious Formula One dinner party and the ten living F1 'people' I would invite.
As well as Ken Tyrrell, Nigel Roebuck, Stirling Moss, Bette Hill (Damon's mother, Graham's wife) and my good friend John Lane (Gilles Villeneuve's close friend and sponsor), I was keen to 'invite' Professor Sid Watkins.
For those of you who aren't aware, 'Sid' is the FIA's medical delegate, in other words the official Formula One doctor, and has been for over twenty years. As well as dealing with the minor cuts and bruises that drivers accumulate over a GP weekend, Sid also has to deal with the major incidents such as Melbourne earlier this year, Monza in 2000 and Michael Schumacher's crash at Silverstone in 1999. Sid attends every GP but rarely gets the time to sit back and enjoy the racing. Instead he sits alongside his nominated 'chauffer' in the medical car waiting to spring into action. Next time you watch a GP look out for the car that follows the pack on that all-important first lap - and I don't mean Tarso Marques' Minardi. The passenger in the high-powered saloon car chasing David, Michael, Mika et al will be Prof Watkins. His driver will be a former F1 star determined to keep up with the pack, and hopefully give the Prof a fright or two.
Sid first attended a race meeting in a professional capacity way back in 1961. It was a kart race at Brands Hatch. Seventeen years later he returned to Brands Hatch with the Grand Prix circus, only now he was running the medical side of things, by appointment to Bernie Ecclestone.
Sadly, Sid's first season was marred by the death of Ronnie Peterson who died as a result of injuries incurred in a crash at the start of the Italian GP. Since then the Professor has worked tirelessly, alongside others such as Ecclestone to make the sport safer and to minimise the risk to drivers, officials and spectators. It's a fight that's gradually being won, but as we are all aware we can never take anything for granted. After all, as it says on the back of your race ticket 'motor racing is dangerous.'
In 1996, Sid wrote the best-selling 'Life at the Limit', a book in which he recounted many of his experiences in F1 as well as analysing such things as the physical wear on race drivers and F1 safety since the early sixties.
The book contained dozens of superb, and highly entertaining anecdotes relating to the many F1 personalities Sid has worked with since '78. Let's just put this into context: The 1978 World Champion was Mario Andretti, the following year Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve dominated the championship for Ferrari. Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, Keke Rosberg, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost! some of the greatest names in our sport's history.
However the man with whom Professor Watkins will always be associated is triple World Champion Ayrton Senna.
Sid and Ayrton had a deep and lasting friendship. A couple of years before writing the Atlas piece I'd visited the Jim Clark Trophy Room at Duns (Scotland). The curator told me of the time when Ayrton Senna had privately visited the room accompanied by Prof. Watkins. The story of Senna's visit changed my whole opinion of Ayrton as a man. Indeed at that time another driver was busy telling the world how proud he was to follow in Clark's shoes as a British World Champion. "Has he ever been here?" I asked "We couldn't afford him" was the instant reply.
Senna spent several hours at the museum... watching videos, looking at Clark's trophies and memorabilia, purchasing souvenirs and even posing for a few private photographs. It was obvious even from the dedications in the visitors book that Ayrton and Sid were close.
The chapter in which Sid describes the death of his friend, at Imola in 1994, is one of the most moving, heart-achingly tragic pieces I have ever read. It's the sort of passion that Hollywood screenwriters would kill for, but this isn't mere writing, it's a man, a professional, laying open his very soul.
When I was offered the chance to interview Sid to mark the launch of his latest tome, I jumped at the opportunity, for the Prof along with Senna, Lauda, Villeneuve and Prost is one of the sport's true heroes.
It was a very hot Spring morning, but when Sid arrived for the interview he was immaculately dressed in a grey suit, looking as cool as a cucumber. At a time when most men of his age would be watering the roses in the back garden and relaxing over the Times crossword, Professor Watkins is travelling the world looking after some of the highest paid professionals in the fastest and most dangerous sport on earth.
I began by asking him about the new book, did it merely follow on from 'Life at the limit'? It soon became clear that Sid has something in common with Mike Lawrence and I.
"Yes it does," he says. "It goes through the intervening years between the last book and the beginning of the so-called millennium season, this year (2001) not last year (2000)," he laughs. "But the Government gets these things wrong. They're not mathematicians you see that's the problem."
OK, back to the book:
"The millennium season is described race by race in a sort of diary form," Sid continues. "One of the criticisms of the original book was there wasn't enough about what actually I do, or what I'm hanging around doing. And then finally there's a bit about the drivers from the past that I've known, which I've called the Golden Oldies."
I'm not so sure that Gerhard Berger will appreciate being called a 'golden oldie', yet he is, along with John Surtees, Jim Clark, Phil Hill and Niki Lauda.
"Then finally for the medical profession and scientists," he adds, "there's an appendix on the biophysics of accidents."
Who better to ask about the revolutionary HANS (head and neck support) system than the President of the FIA's Expert Advisory Safety Committee and Medical Commission?
"It was designed by a chap called Bob Hubbard of Michigan State University," says the Prof. "It was originally designed for powerboat racing and it consists of a yoke that sits on the driver's shoulders that is retained by a safety harness and mounted on the yoke is a vertical post to which tethers are attached. The other end of the tethers are attached to the helmet. The idea is that when the driver is thrown forward in a frontal accident, the seat belts tighten and retain the yoke tightly against the body the movement of the head and neck forward is limited because of the tethers and the force is transmitted down a vertical post to the shoulders.
"It's very effective in reducing g-forces in the head in a frontal accident," he continues. "So there are a lot of positives about it, it's as effective as an air bag. CART drivers and touring car series in Germany are using it.
"The negatives are that it's uncomfortable to wear until you get used to it. It has to be custom fitted because each driver is so singular in his build in terms of shoulders, neck and head."
'A couple of drivers have tried it,' I point out. 'Barrichello and Coulthard! Is it going to be made mandatory in F1?'
"We wanted to do that this year," Sid replies. "But we hadn't made enough development. We have to be sure that the apparatus is safe in itself and will not fracture. So the transport research lab has designed a test to make sure that the integrity of the head and neck support would be ok.
"We're trying it on a voluntary basis at Silverstone testing in June. This is the first day the drivers have been asked to wear one, to see what they generally feel about it, and to see what more needs to be done in terms of development."
I ask if it will be in place for 2002? "It could be," says Sid. "Yes".
'You've been involved in F1 for over 20 years now,' I point out. 'What are the most significant changes from your point of view?'
"I think the most significant changes have been the changes to the car," he responds. "The introduction of carbon chassis has been the really big change, then the introduction of the frontal impact test, rear impact test and side impact test means that the chassis now are very safe," he continues.
"The changes that have been made to the cockpit in the last six years, in terms of foam padding to protect the head and neck when they have an accident, and also a collapsible steering wheel, wider safety harness and so forth and so on improves the biophysics of the accidents immensely.
'There's this tremendous conflict,' I interrupt. 'We don't want drivers getting hurt, but then we don't want the sport to become too safe, there has to be the element of danger. What are your thoughts on that?'
"Well it's a lot safer than it was," Sid responds. "The incidence of injury or death now has fallen from 1 severe injury or a death every 10 accidents in the 60s and 70s, to 1 in 300, so it's 30 times better from that point of view.
"But the unexpected can always happen," he adds. "You only need to look at Villeneuve's accident in Melbourne to see that it's still a dangerous sport, but not as dangerous as it was by a long chalk.
I have to mention the first book. 'There were bits of 'Life at the limit' that I still find very difficult to read. Most notably the description of Ayrton's death. That must have been extremely hard for you to write'.
"It was," says Sid quietly. "It was a very curious phenomenon really, because we'd gone back to Jerez where Senna had taken a big interest in how Martin Donnelly's accident (Spanish GP 1990) was managed. I was just sitting in the hotel looking out at the golf course, and I suddenly got this feeling to write that chapter. I wrote it in an hour or so. I ended up with tears in my eyes."
As I have previously said, the description of Ayrton's death, the moment of his death, is without doubt one of the most moving pieces I have ever read, not just because it deals with the death of a legend but because it is a man writing about the death of a very close friend.
'You write that you 'saw' his soul leave his body! that was so beautifully written. I know all about the trip to Duns, the visit to Jim Clark's school (Loretto outside Edinburgh). I know how close you two were. Because of what happened, do you now try to distance yourself from the drivers, so you don't get as emotionally involved as you were with Ayrton?'
Outside the traffic has come to a standstill, tempers rise along with the temperature. However, inside there's a long silence, I worry that I might have gone just a little too far, stirred up too many bad memories.
"Not consciously," says Sid slowly, quietly. "The thing with Senna was one of those extraordinary confluences of personality.
"We just liked each other immensely," he adds
"Loved each other immensely."
Silence! how do I continue?
Finally I opt to go a different route entirely.
'This year at the Autosport show, I attended your lecture. I was surprised to see the man who'd previously moved me to tears refer to Niki Lauda's accident at the Nurburgring in '76 as a barbecue... and even more surprised to see Niki laughing.'
Sid smiles at the memory.
'It was so funny,' I continue. 'Such a taboo subject and yet Niki took it so well. Do you find its best to just go head first in to these things?
"Yes," laughs the Prof. "We're good pals."
'Life at the limit' recounts the tale of Niki returning to the Nurburgring, scene of his near fatal accident in 1976, on his fiftieth birthday. Walking through the woods, Niki and his friends encountered a group of German tourists. 'What are you doing here?' asked the tourists. 'Looking for my ear,' said the three-times World Champion with a big grin.
Sid then recounts an incident involving Mika Hakkinen.
"I was walking up the pitlane in Suzuka, after he'd (Hakkinen) had that incident in Monza when he cried," said the Prof, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "Somebody gave me a motor racing journal and in the journal was a series of photos of him breaking down and crying, and as I was looking at the photographs and walking up the pitlane I was aware of a presence in front of me. It was Mika, and I was laughing because I thought it was funny that he'd gone through all those emotional responses. 'What are you laughing at?' he said, and I replied 'I'm laughing at you!' and I showed him the actual photographs, and I said 'I hope we're not going to have any more nonsense like that', and he said 'No. When the lights go out today I'll be gone like a flash, and there won't be any repetition of that.' And of course he did it and he won the race and the championship."
Time to dish some dirt. 'Any real cry babies that you've dealt with,' I ask. 'Guys that even though they're Formula One drivers didn't like being treated.
"In terms of response to pain, they're all normal human beings," he smiles. "They all yell."
'Any embarrassing moments, treatment wise?'
"No, not really," he replies knowing full well what I'm trying to do. "My worst embarrassment was when I took Katayama out of a car in Portugal and took his helmet off and put a collar on him and so forth. He started to recover consciousness, and just as he did my glasses fell off and hit him in the face." We both laugh.
'Going back to Katayama! He went off at Monza one year, 1997 I think. You came haring down the back straight towards the Parabolica and your 'driver' Arturo Merzario drove straight on and got stuck in the gravel trap, much to the delight of the fans. Are there any safety car drivers that you think Oh God, not him?'
"Not any more," laughs Sid. "I've been through that phase."
'Any names?' I ask, trying to look innocent.
"One Brazilian and one Italian, that's all I'll say," laughs the Prof.
By now, Sid's publisher is getting restless, the Prof has an important meeting and the traffic is getting worse.
I'm about to thank him for the interview when Sid leans forward and grabs my hand. "That was wonderful," he says. "I really enjoyed that, wonderful."
His eyes twinkled, he meant it.
I'll be doing a full review of 'Beyond the limit' next week, however the book is available right now. Should you not be interested in Sid's wonderful anecdotes, or his informed in-sight may I just point out that it's worth buying the book if only for the rather excellent picture entitled 'the alchemist'.